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Thanks, going to watch right now :)

downloading now, i've been waiting for this.:)

Demo is very cool. The karaoke minigame is awesome. Saw a video on Youtube of a shooter game from the arcade but I didn't find the arcade in my first playthrough.

Awesome! Will try download the demo tomorrow.

it looks great. the facial animations are awesome, right up there with heavenly sword and uncharted. i can see myself getting totally immersed into this game, even more so than GTA4, maybe. come on sega, hurry and release it in the UK or US already.

Have they confirmed that they're releasing this in the US and UK? Any target release date for it in those territories?

There's a big diference between cutscenes and gameplay in post processing.

Why can't Yakuza copy a little of the animations from shenmue... the tank controls were akward, but atleast Ryo didn't move like he had a skateboard glued to his feet.

really good demo, fighting felt great, and much improved compared to yakuza 1/2. graphics are impressive, at least in terms of texture variety and crowd numbers. i just wish i could understand what the hell was going on in the demo, they should have developed the game with english subs in mind from day one, then we could have had a worldwide release, or at the very least we'd have been able to import it.

not as far as i'm aware, but i think it's inevitable. i just hope they don't take too long.

As Sega said....no plans to release it anytime soon in the west.
I just HATE that. All we need is English subs and that's enough...those
crappy english voice-overs destroy a game anyway.....no need for it.

I know, subtitles are good enough, and there is no way in hell SEGA won't profit more than enough even if it sells "badly" over here, they are just assholes.

Yay they kept the REALLY loud footsteps!!!


I love Yakuza1 and 2 and hopefully this one will see a release here.
I will NOT play the demo because it will just be a taste of something I'll never get.

Loved Shen Mue, never played Yakuza. I am a little dissapointed by the disparity in the cut scenes and gameplay, and the awkward animation and transitions( which just shouldn't happen this gen, IMO).

Thanks for the vid. I can't read Japanese so this might help.

The demo was good. Character models, hair detail, and pore detail were awesome. I was a little disappointed with the environment graphics though. A lot of it looked like yakuza 1/2 upscaled for HD (seriously, not being a troll). The road textures were nice though. There's too much blur as well.

As for gameplay, the fighting was great. The only bad part is it's a little restrictive and you can't go anywhere you want/kill any random person like GTA. Now I know why SEGA is reluctant to release in the West; Your first impression is this is a japanese GTA, but it's not and doesn't come close to being as good.

It's not meant to be like GTA...

why the hell would you want to kill innocent people on the street!?! Kiryu san is not a thug for god's sake... The producer want to create a man the player could respect.Not some random bloodthirsty thug in GTA.
It actually make sense that SEGA dont want to release it in U.S.
How could a free roaming game not letting you kill innocent people on the street sell in US?
and yeah, it may not be as good as GTA SA, but should be definitely better than that repetitive boring Oscar worthy GTA VI.

For the laughs...it's a game silly goose. In real life, I'm the guy who captures spiders in my house and puts them outside. I can't kill a thing even to save my life lol.

There's nothing better than sandboxing GTA, while joking with friends. I guess I set myself up for disappointment thinking this was going to be more open world. Yes, I played the first two games but never finished either one.

IMO, there's heavy Japanese culture in this game that culture shocks native westerners like me. Just like Uncharted probably culture shocks easterners. Only Americans can truly understand everything in Uncharted. In other words, you have to be from the developer's country to understand the game 100%. I just don't get a lot of stuff in Japanese games because I'm American. I think that is why SEGA didn't plan for a US release. I bet we'll see it eventually though.

since you dont like the first two, then clearly it is not for your taste. Ryu go to ku series was never set to cater for western taste at the first place. So i totally understand why you dont like it. Just look at how GTA sell in japan lol.
But for people who are interested in Japan, this Is a must buy.

Then keep playing GTA, i'm glad not every free roaming game is as mindless as those games.

i think the main reason its more restrictive and less sandbox is money. GTA 4 was a $100 million game, i'd be surprised if this was more than $15 million. To flesh out a world like GTA requires much more time and money to maintain the same quality of experience

plus it isnt that type of game anyway. and i dont think it was ever planned to be like GTA. it's more like a JRPG, only with turn based combat replaced with brawling. it's not about letting you go around killing every NPC on screen, much like final fantasy isnt about killing every NPC on screen. it would feel out of place, not only in terms of the genre itself, but in terms of character and story.

Yeah, lets not get ahead of ourselves..gta4 is in a different league to any sandbox game when it comes to the amount of detail used to flesh out its open world.

This game looks good, really makes me wish sega would get somebody to back them and have them finally bring us shenmue 3...that story needs an ending.

Its strange that this has no planned release in europe..even shenmue 2 hit pal terrortories with subs upon release. And given the amount of press its getting by the gaming media its obvious that theres some sales to be made. And even if there wasnt huge demand for it it doesnt stop sega from constantly poluting us with badly made, poor selling, sonic titles

I dont think this game is free roaming though is it? it looks like its just set area's.

And how anybody can watch those vids and say its less mindless i dont know. Vid 2 is completely insane.

This game reminds me more of streets of rage than gta.. or maybe a hybrid of streets of rage and dead rising.

streets of rage and dead rising？ wtf are you talking about？
It seems you never played any previous yakuza game... oh well, it is very unlikely this game will ever be released in US. So you could just save your speculation based on 4 vids and move along.

Is this the game where you can punch a TIGER in the face?